History relies on way more than just historians to put together accounts of the past. Archeologists, anthropologists, physicists, cosmologists, and many, many others contribute to our understanding of history. In this video, we’ll consider how these different disciplines and perspectives give us a richer understanding of the past, and our world today.
Driving Question: How can looking at the same event from different perspectives lead to new conclusions?
- What caused the society on Easter Island to disappear, leaving behind intricately carved stone statues? Historians still cannot agree on an explanation. What kind of experts would you assemble to investigate this mystery? To unravel these mysteries, we need to tackle them from several different angles, or disciplines.
Word of the Day: Discipline
- A discipline is an area of study or learning. Astronomy and biology are scientific disciplines.
Lesson
- Go to the Khan Academy activity, where you’ll look at the eruption of Mount Vesuvius - which buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum - from the perspective of several different academic disciplines.
Historian’s Journal Prompt
- Find two stories about the coronavirus, either on social media or from different news outlets. Which disciplines, or areas of expertise, do they draw on? How do these different perspectives help you better understand the coronavirus?
You can also think about the different disciplines we need in order to solve this crisis. If you were to assemble a team of experts, who would you include and why?
